Chapter Twenty Seven: Vampires, Wolves, Angels and Humans.
The living room looked like the supernatural world's equivalent of the United Nations. I sat at the head of the sofa horseshoe, the centre of a story that had largely played out away from my eyes. In that respect, all that I had seen had been the tip of the iceberg. For me, it had started with a note on my desk last October; but that hadn't been the real start of things. Carlisle decided that the root lay with the vampires many hundreds of years ago. He started the story.
"It's probably helpful if I put things in context and give the background to this for those of you who don't know the whole story. I knew when I was first with the Volturi and Jane will back me up on this; that when my choice of lifestyle became known, that it wouldn't result in many friends. In any sphere, if you're different that challenges people. Sometimes it's a good challenge and they come to see things from your point of view. At other times they feel that what you're doing is an affront to them. Killing humans for their blood is instinct for vampires and many never question what their instincts tell them to do. Many vampires also relish the lives they lead. Stephanie, you saw that first hand in Keeley. She's entirely out for what she can get and that is the over-riding trait of any vampire. We are at our core, incredibly selfish beings."
"Vampires do not have exclusivity on selfishness." Added Heather. "It's present in all of us, regardless of species."
"True, but it finds its most graphic manifestation in us. Aro, for instance. Stephanie, you haven't met him yet, but…"
"You're not missing anything." Interjected Jane. "He's hands down the biggest ego in history."
"Aro's the one who came to get Ness in San Francisco?" I asked, piecing together the names and the situations. "The one who declared himself King?"
"Yes," said Carlisle. "And that's not the first time he'd tried to take Ness away from us. What Aro wants, Aro takes; or did until he went too far and his whole empire disintegrated around him. He's taking what he calls a sabbatical at the moment …"
"But in reality it's Sulpicia getting him to sit on the naughty step." Jane added. "After twelve hundred years of being at his beck and call, I can tell you it's a heady experience being the one that orders Aro around. Sorry Carlisle, please continue."
"Aro." Carlisle continued. "Is the reason Jane ended up in the Volturi. Aro looked at humans and wanted a family, so he went out and put one together; choosing Jane and her twin brother Alec to be his children. But that didn't work. As you've seen, Jane has her own abilities and Alec did too. They didn't fall meekly into line as Aro wanted and so they ended up becoming part of his guard."
I wondered why, if he was Jane's twin brother that I'd not met Alec, or why I hadn't heard him mentioned before.
"Stephanie's wondering about Alec." Edward added.
Jane angled herself towards me. "When Aro's empire collapsed, I was still here in Italy with the Volturi, but struggling to deal with my feelings for Dan. Until I met him, I'd spent over a thousand years hunting down vampires who had allowed humans to know of our existence. Sometimes I even hunted down those humans. When Aro's empire collapsed I took my chance to run, but Alec came after me and tried to force me back. I knew I wanted more than to be Aro's puppet, so I fought Alec and killed him. I'm not proud of that, but I realise that love makes you do strange things. Until I met Dan, I could never see the fascination vampires had with any human. And then one day, there he was; the most beautiful man I'd ever seen, walking into Charlie Swan's living room and inviting me out for coffee."
Jess started sniggering. "Twelve hundred years and he's the best out there? Bloody hell, things are getting desperate."
"You know what Jess?" Said Jane. "It may seem odd to you that I fell for your brother, but I've been around a long time and nobody ever looked at me with so much as a hint of attraction before. I was always the scary little girl. Vampires came, vampires paired up and vampires went from the Volturi citadel; but never once did any man give me a second glance. When I met Dan, I thought it was too good to be true. I spent ten short months living the dream. When I messed up, I spent six very long months convincing myself, off the back of twelve hundred years of experiencing loneliness that I was right - no one would ever want to be with me. So forgive me if I take this second chance and hold fast to your brother for the rest of eternity. You can tell me about desperation, when you've been trapped in the body of a fourteen year old girl for over a millennia."
"I'm sorry." Jess said regretfully.
"I love him Jess and together we're going to try and be good parents to Sophie. As you're doing a great job with Ben, I hope you'll help us."
Jess rushed to embrace her sister in law. "I'm glad he's found someone who loves him as much as you do. Anyway, sorry; I hijacked what you were telling Stephanie." Jess sat back down.
Jane returned her attention to me. "Because Aro couldn't achieve what he wanted, his envy of humans turned into loathing and that attitude spread out through all of us. We were taught to regard humans as a second class species. So when Carlisle came along with his unusual lifestyle choice, he was treated as an oddity. When he left the Volturi, Aro was convinced that he wouldn't manage to adhere to his warped notion and would revert to our ways. But he didn't. He controlled his thirst and trained as a Doctor. He then confounded all of us by getting a job. Where we were seizing money by force and extortion, Carlisle was out earning it and quietly subsuming himself into humanity. We were aware of a small group of others who had also chosen this way of life, but Aro dismissed them all as oddities and ignored them.
"But on others Carlisle made more of an impression. For most of my time I was content to live my life as a traditional vampire, I never questioned what I did. Only when I met Dan did it become imperative that I adopt this way of life in order to have what I wanted. As you can see, I'm as selfish as anyone else. But for others it comes much earlier and for different reasons. Jasper? I think you're best placed to talk about that."
Jasper sat forward. "I was many thousands of miles away and until one night in 1863 I'd never so much as let the notion of vampires enter my head. All that changed when I found myself ripped from one world at war and pulled into another world at war. The vampire community is, as Carlisle and Jane have both said, deeply selfish. In the south of the United States it's a constant battle for hunting territory. It's not as prevalent as it was back in the 1860s but it's still there. As you know I can sense and control emotions. When Keeley attacked you I sensed your terror and that is an emotion I have felt thousands of times from the people I have killed. Vampires are not robots, we think and we feel just as you do. Being able to sense all that terror made me depressed, more so because I felt trapped in the life I was living. I tried to stop killing but I couldn't do so entirely. However, I did manage to reduce it. When I broke away from the life of war in the south, I wandered as a nomad for nearly forty years. And then one day, I met Alice and she told me things that I didn't believe at first. She told me that there was another way to live, a way that had not occurred to me. But it's not easy; some of us struggle at it. Some of us make several attempts before it works and that's true of almost everyone here. Even Edward slipped up."
There was a laugh. "I've never claimed I was perfect." Said Edward.
"No, that's true. And all credit to you that you coped with a singer when some of us didn't."
"Yeah, my Dad rocks!" Called Ness, punching her first in the air.
"Oh great, the Edward Cullen fan club." Sighed Emmett.
"You're just jealous of his awesomeness." Goaded Ness.
"You're just sadly deluded." Retorted Emmett good-naturedly. "And let's not even start on that whole psychic freakery you two have going on there. That's some weird father-daughter shit and no mistake." Emmett grinned at his niece. Ness made a 'w' sign with her hands. "And you can stop with the 'whatever' sign, Miss."
Jess and Dan collapsed in laughter.
"Keep up Em." Edward said, smirking. "It doesn't stand for 'whatever' in England."
"What does it stand for?" Emmett was suddenly not laughing. There was a blur from Jess and she appeared in front of him with an enormous dictionary.
"Page nineteen ninety nine, first column, eleventh word." She said handing the book to Emmett. She looked at Ness. "Do you think you should start running?"
Ness shook her head, "Nope." She was triumphant.
Emmett shut the book with such a bang that it made me jump. His face was one of shock.
"Edward, I think you need to have with a word with your daughter about appropriate language." Emmett was stern.
"I don't think so. Let's face it Em, it's something we've all seen you doing, so she's using very appropriate language." Ness flitted over and high-fived her Dad. "Thanks kid; it only took me seventy three years to get to this point."
Emmett looked suddenly worried. "Oh… this isn't what I think it is, is it?"
Edward's eyes flashed with mischief. "You mean payback time? Oh yeah."
Bella groaned.
"Boys will be boys…" Added Rose.
Emmett clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Bring it on!"
"Will they ever grow up? Glowered Alice.
Carlisle sighed. "I'm beginning to think not. Teenagers…" He rolled his eyes. "Sorry Stephanie. This isn't getting to the point. Perhaps Edward can break off from his victory celebrations and carry on?"
Edward pulled Bella to him and looked over to me. "Carlisle disappeared from Aro's notice and worked his way around America, discovering what this new life could consist of. He realised that in more temperate climates, it was easier for him to develop a life that was more in line with humans.
"As you know from the short time that you've been with Daniel, he found it hard to keep so much of his life hidden from you. It's loneliness that drives vampires to let humans into their world, the very thing that Jane was charged with making sure didn't happen. So first with me and then shortly after with Esmé, Carlisle set about putting together not a vampire coven, but a vampire family. He chose those who were close to death. To the three of us he added Rose and Emmett in the 1930s. You know that Alice and Jasper joined us in the 1950s and that's how it stayed, until one day, nearly ten years ago now, someone new turned up at Forks High." Edward kissed Bella. "That's when things started to change. I fell for someone who was very alive and very set on discovering what I was. Sorry Jake."
"No problem, I handled it." Jake and Edward grinned at one another.
Rose leaned forward to me. "There's a whole book between these two, if you're really unlucky they'll tell you."
Edward continued. "So for the first time we were faced with someone who was choosing to join us and that's when Aro started to get interested in what Carlisle was doing. Bella and the mere existence of our family was a threat, because here was something that was holding together not by force, but by love. We choose to stay, we choose this life and our choices bind us even more tightly together than anything force can achieve. Bella joining us he could cope with, it completed our eight. But what happened next, he could not."
"Little baby, big trouble." Emmett grinned.
Edward continued. "Ness's birth kicked wide open the debate about whether humans and vampires could or should co-exist. But I'm missing out a whole section and it's not my story to tell. Jake, do you want to add in how the Quileutes found themselves in all this?"
"Sure." Jake stretched out his long legs. "The Quileutes are a people whose history is an oral tradition. The stories are passed down from generation to generation. But there are some stories that not all the tribe know. There are some stories that are not just stories, they are our life. The Quileutes have always had magic in their blood and had come across vampires many years ago. Quite rightly, after they decimated the tribe, they feared them. They became our enemies. What very few of us were aware of, was that the proximity of vampires to Quileutes sets about a change in those of us with certain genetic markers. Our tribe is founded on wolf-lore and perhaps it's no surprise that when faced with the dangers presented by vampires, those Quileutes with the markers become wolves.
"In the early years of the twentieth century, another group of vampires arrived in our area, but this time they came not wanting to kill us, but to live alongside us. Carlisle and my Grandfather Ephraim Black brokered a treaty. In return for us not killing them or telling the pale-faces about them, they would keep off Quileute lands. The presence of vampires causes a corresponding number of Quileutes to develop the ability to phase into wolves. Carlisle and his family remained for a few years and then departed to live in Alaska for a while. They came back about a year or so before Bella arrived and set up their home in the house we have now. A few on the council still remembered the wolves from the first time, so when Carlisle reappeared, my father knew exactly what they were. With seven vampires now living in the area, it was only a matter of time before the Quileutes responded. Sam was first, then Jared, Paul, Embry and then me. Quil, Leah and Seth came later. We couldn't work out what Seth was doing there; after all there were seven vampires and eight wolves. But it looks like nature knew how things would turn out, even before we did. So, there we were; a pack of wolves, a family of vampires and Bella Swan smack in the middle."
"And an interesting tussle ensued." Said Alice.
"At this point I need to apologise." Said Charlie. "Edward, I'm sorry for being team Jake there for a while. I feel slightly traitorous about that now."
"That's OK Charlie, Jake looked after her well. Ness? Come here."
Across the room Ness was looking very like she was going to cry. At Edward's encouraging she got up and climbed on to Bella's lap, burying her head in her Mom's neck. Edward embraced his family and quiet words were shared between them.
"What's the matter?" I said as quietly as I could to Daniel.
"Ness gets upset about the time Edward left Bella. It's all tangled up with the whole mess she went through last year."
"Pick it up after Ness was born." Said Esmé, we can save the rest for another time."
"Would you mind continuing?" Said Edward. He looked distressed.
"Not at all." Replied Esmé.
"Ness's birth galvanised Aro into acting." Esmé continued. "He wanted Ness and made plans, using a member of our own family against us, to charge us with creating an immortal child. Immortal children are different to hybrids. Ness and Ben grow and learn as any other children would do, through to adulthood - albeit at an accelerated rate. Vampires are frozen in time when they are changed and if that happens in a child, the child cannot think or reason like an adult. Immortal children are dangerous beyond belief and that was the premise of his visit. But we now know from Jane that he knew that Ness was no immortal child and he was more concerned about us gaining the upper hand from him. Aro's a bully. He wanted what we had and he set out to take Ness from us.
"What he didn't bet on was the numbers of those who would stand for us. He didn't factor in the tenacity of Alice and Jasper in going to track down what was no more than a rumour in the Amazon. More than that, he didn't know about the unbreakable bonds that are forged when a Quileute imprints. Jake and Ness are much more than boyfriend and girlfriend. When Ness was born something happened within Jake to bond himself to her. It's not really love at first sight, it's everything that he is. He laid it down at the feet of a baby who was no more than a few minutes old. Her birth and Jake's imprinting not only linked humans to vampires; but through Ness, vampires to the Quileute tribe. Once sworn enemies would now be eternally linked. So you see, Nessie really is very special, even though she never thinks she is.
"Jake imprinting on Ness brought with it the care and protection of all the wolves. They are sworn to protect the imprinted mates of their fellow pack members. So when Aro arrived, he found not only vampires standing against him, but wolves too."
"But we argued our case and won through." Said Emmett.
"Yes," said Carlisle. "But since then things have been festering and this is what you've have been drawn into Stephanie. Some vampires still don't like what we do here. They feel that this life is wrong and that vampires should remain above humans and not stoop to associate with them. Since Ness's arrival our family has grown, from nine to twenty and not all of us are vampires. We make no distinction about what species you are here. Vampire, human and wolf co-exist in one family and we love and protect one another regardless of that. That we are adding a nephilim does not sit well with those who do not agree with our existence. Kael? You know what's been happening better than anyone. Perhaps you'd like to explain how you became involved?"
All eyes turned to Heather's father sat beside her. "It's no wonder they're out to get you," he said. "You make peace efforts around the world look like they're not trying hard enough." Kael smiled and looked at me. "I have my own apologies to make to you Stephanie and I know that 'I'm sorry' is a phrase you've heard rather too much over the last couple of days. I hope this is the last time you hear it, but I'm sorry for my part in causing you and this family a lot of distress and worry over the last few months. I've wandered the planet for thousands of years and I completely identify with Jane, when she mentioned about being lonely for over a millennia. I've been more fortunate; I occasionally father children, which does mean that I have the company of their mothers for a while. But the desperate loneliness gets to you and so does the need for money. I'm cut off from where I should be and there's no great celestial ATM machine. Like you I have to work to earn my money. Sometimes I do legitimate jobs, other times I do things that I… shouldn't. It's always the way that my skills as a mind-reader and being able to get in and out of places while avoiding detection, can command a high price. Occasionally I succumb to someone with more money than sense. Because of that, I found myself in league with a vigilante vampire and a disgruntled wolf." Kael looked at me. "They'd realised that they couldn't break apart the bits that were already joined together. It would be useless trying to break up Ness and Jake or Edward and Bella. But they could stop new members of the family joining or unattached vampires forming relationships. So they focussed their attention on you and Daniel." Daniel pulled me closer. Kael continued. "In theory it was supposed to be quite simple: Frighten the human and she'll run away. And at times it worked; you did run away, and you did heed the warnings that we were giving you. But like some giant piece of elastic, the further we pulled you away from Daniel, the closer you sprang back and vice versa. The more we tried to stop Daniel, the harder he worked and the more the rest of them threw at us to try and stop what we were doing."
"So where do Jackson and Korvin fit into this?" I asked.
"Firstly, Jackson is Makah, not Quileute." Said Jake. "He came down to La Push about two years ago to stay with Tiffany Call, Embry's Mom. Nobody thought much about it at the time, but it would seem that Tiffany isn't the only one who's had a baby by a Quileute man. Jackson became good friends with Korvin, but with Daniel's arrival it meant that there would be another Quileute whose genetic marker activated. Jackson phased, Korvin didn't. Jackson for some reason couldn't connect to either of the packs; so for a long time we didn't know he was there. Neither did he know about us. So he didn't know the full story, he only knew half-remembered ones. He didn't know what was happening to him, so he did the only thing that he could do to stop himself going crazy: He told his best friend. So the two of them knew about the vampires and the wolves only from what they could glean. But they didn't know that we've moved on now and decided to adhere to things as they were, causing a whole lot of damage. Korvin was insanely jealous of Jackson. He wanted to be a wolf too and it's something he can't have. You have to be born with the ability, you can't just develop it. Soon after he phased, Jackson met up with Uriah the vigilante vampire who had decided to take it upon himself to 'deal' with the Cullens. Uriah was rich and that much money to a teen is very seductive. Jackson and Korvin were doubly useful because Korvin they could get at you through school. Korvin focussed on you because Jackson couldn't risk being the one who ended up behind bars. Jared had taken Jackson into his pack and has managed to establish a connection with him. I'm looking after Korvin. He can't phase but I've given him a job at the repair shop. I've included him on the council too, which will make him feel part of things and keep him on side. We can't risk him feeling alienated again. "But why would they be so up in arms about something as normal as this in the first place?" I asked. "This family's hardly on a land or power grab."
"It's fear of what they don't understand." Kael said. He was speaking to the family as a whole now. "You may want to live a quiet existence, have jobs, houses and increasingly, families; but that's garnering you enemies as betrayers of vampirism. Vampires don't do that. They don't have homes and take human women on dates. Vampires don't run house renovating businesses, stay at home and care for their children, work as Journalists, Doctors, Fashion Designers, Mechanics, Computer Engineers or yearn to be writers."
"Who's the writer?" Asked Jess.
"Me." Said Jasper.
"Why don't you?" Said Jess. Jasper sighed.
"He thinks he's not good enough." Said Alice. "But the poetry he writes for me is so beautiful and you know he's always telling stories."
"You should go for it!" Said Jess.
"Jess, I don't have the…"
"Confidence? Bollocks! Who of us does Ben insist does bedtime stories? And wants your made-up stories because they're better than the ones he reads in books? You don't think other people might want to read those stories too?"
"They're about vampires. I don't think the world needs any more stories about vampires."
"What?" Exclaimed Jess. "Vampire stories actually written by a vampire? Take it from me, the world would love them! They'd be so authentic! Think of all the vampire wars tales you could tell! All the rest of the books out there are some crap about…oh… well, my life really..." Everyone laughed. "But that's not the point!" Jess shouted over the laughter. "The thing is Jasper, just because you're a vampire doesn't mean that you can't do what you really want to do. Carlisle's a Doctor. Day in, day out he deals with blood and he copes with it. All you need to cope with is a lack of self-belief. Write down those stories you tell Ben and send them to an agent, or self-publish even. Cullen Press, there you go, we can add publishing to our roster of companies."
"You make it sound so simple." Said Jasper,
"It is. Just write the bloody things and I'll send them off if you won't."
"You have quite the way with words Miss Taylor." Said Kael.
"I just tell it like it is."
"Marcus hasn't forgotten your comments by the way." Said Jane.
"What do you mean?"
"When you got drunk at our wedding reception and told him he looked like a miserable old bugger. I've spotted him with a smile on two occasions now."
She turned to Will. "Did I? I don't remember that."
"Yes, you did." He cupped her face with his hands. "My fearless Jess." He kissed her and immediately Jess was on him tearing at his clothes.
Dan groaned. "I could be scarred for life here. Get a room!" He shouted, shoving his sister until she broke off her kiss and snarled angrily at her brother. Will's hands whipped around her and Jasper was on his feet. "My, my, Snow White what big teeth you've got." Dan mocked. "You don't scare me, fang." He grinned.
"She's OK." Said Edward. "And then in all this you discovered something else didn't you Kael?" Edward's comment had everyone attentive.
"Yes. I hadn't seen my daughter for nearly twenty five years. As you know you get to a point where you can't carry on seeing them, it arouses too many questions. But there she was one day, simply walking across the parking lot to the supermarket. I thought long and hard about whether I should contact her and in the end I did. I've longed for someone to completely be myself around. Seeing the very easy way that Charlie dealt with his own family being vampires, gave me hope; that I might be able to be part of Heather's life too. Suddenly it wasn't about me doing a job; but indirectly hurting my own daughter. Hurt Stephanie and Daniel and that affects Edward, Bella, Ness and Jake. That in turn affects Charlie and then Heather. I could see how Charlie felt about her and I knew she felt the same way about him.
"If I stood any chance of revealing to her what I was, what she was and establishing a friendship with her, then she'd need to be well supported when I wasn't around. I knew that in this family she would be. So I went ahead and revealed myself to her and soon after bailed out of the arrangement with Uriah and Jackson. I went to see Edward and Bella and the rest you know. Being something other than human on this planet can be the loneliest thing. You have each other, that's precious, so I urge you to stick together."
"And you?" Said Carlisle. "Where's home for you?"
"I don't…"
"My house." Said Heather. "Anytime."
Kael took his daughter's hand and kissed it. "Thank you."
"No, thank you."
"For what?"
"Saying that Charlie feels the same way about me that I do about him."
"You should do something about that Dad." Bella said.
"I was working up to it. Now the surprise is all gone!" Charlie griped.
"I don't mind not having surprises." Said Heather.
"Well that's good then. So how about it?"
"Dad! Do it right, on your knees with a ring and everything!" Bella smacked her palm on her forehead and a chuckle went around the room.
"OK, I will," Charlie bristled. "But not right now. OK?"
"Oh I do love a happily ever after!" Smiled Esmé.
"Nobody knows if you're going to have a happily ever after, not even Alice. She can't see that far ahead." Said Jasper.
"But others can." Said Kael. "I took the liberty of asking one of my other brothers about you all, so I do know how it works out for Heather and Charlie and all the rest of you. I wouldn't have done what I did if it was going to end badly."
"So you know what happens to us all?" Asked Dan.
"Yes. You want to know about that second child, right?"
Dan nodded. "Yes."
"Two and a half years from now. The rest would be spoilers."
"Fi was right then." Dan said quietly and took Jane's hand.
"Barakel's daughter always is."
Both Jess and Dan were on their feet. "No!" they shouted in unison, staring at Kael.
"Freaky Fiona Sawbridge is a Nephilim?" Questioned Jess.
"Yes, there are quite a few."
"And we always wondered why she had such bright orange hair when her parents were brunettes."
Kael chuckled. "Barakel's children stand out. Recessive gene my ass, that boy gets about."
"Fiona Sawbridge? She helped me to put this all together." I said. "She's on a vampire forum."
"I know." Said Jane. "She's already come to our attention. She knows a lot and it's all correct."
"The Volturi won't hurt her will they?" Asked Dan. "She did help us to discover where Jess was."
"I'll make sure we lose her file."
"Thanks." Said Dan.
"You should get in touch with her." Said Kael. "I think Barakel would like to know how she is."
"He couldn't see her himself?" Asked Jess.
"It really isn't easy to walk into someone's life and tell them that you're their father. And neither is it easy to walk back into their mother's life looking wholly unchanged. That would cause an awful lot of pain."
"I wouldn't have put Eileen Sawbridge down as someone to have had an affair." Dan blew air out through his teeth.
"Angels are just as hard as vampires to resist." Kael smiled gently.
I smiled, Bella smiled, Jess, Dan and Jake smiled. Across the room Esmé too was looking at Carlisle in an odd way.
"You two as well?" I asked, a little shocked. "I thought Carlisle changed you when you were dying?"
"Oh I was," said Esmé. "But that wasn't the first time I met him. He treated me when I broke my leg when I was sixteen."
"Ten years earlier?" Asked Will.
"Vampires are just as hard as Angels to resist." Esmé said smiling.
Carlisle looked at Will. "Girl meets boy, vampire meets human and on and on we go until the end of time. I waited a long time for Miss Platt." Carlisle grinned. "As I said earlier, we are at our core incredibly selfish beings. What I wanted, I got."
"Well that's your Vampire of the Year award out the window." Said Rose.
"Hey, I waited ten years and she pretty much dropped into my lap at the end, so let's not paint me as the villain here!" Carlisle laughed.
Ben ran in from the pool. "Is nobody going to come play with me?"
"I'll come and play with you." Said Dan getting up.
"We'll all come and play with you." Added Alice.
"Boys against girls?" Asked Ben excitedly.
"Well, we've got two more boys than girls." Said Dan.
"I'll sit this one out." Said Kael. "I'm intrigued by your books."
"What about Alia?" said Esmé to Carlisle "She'd love this."
"Yes, I'll go get her." Said Carlisle.
"Swimsuits!" Said Jess. "I really don't think Stephanie and Heather need to cope with all you lot in your birthday suits."
As one by one everyone drifted back to their rooms, Kael went over to the bookcases. I seized my opportunity to ask him the question that had been circling in my head since he said that he knew what happened to us all.
"And that's all you want to know?"
"Yes."
"Nothing about yourself?"
I shook my head. "No."
"Good. Life's more fun when you don't know what's coming."
I walked off back to our room, but Edward was waiting for me. "I too am surprised that that's all you asked."
"It's all I want to know."
"I've discovered I can only hear his thoughts if he's within twenty feet of me, so I know what he said. Bella, Ness, Jake and I will help you."
"Thanks, but I'm not going to tell Daniel, so I'd be grateful if this stayed between you and me. I didn't ask timescales, I just asked if it would happen."
"And now you know it will, so how does that affect you?"
"I've got some work to do." I replied. "I've never considered that I would be a Mom before."
"But you won't be giving birth to Madison."
"No and I don't know what circumstances she'll come to us in, so I need to be prepared for every eventuality."
"Let me tell Bella, please. I don't keep secrets from my wife anymore, it doesn't work out well."
I nodded. Edward reached out and touched my arm. "You're taking on a lot, go easy on yourself. Come and have some fun by the pool. I think you'll find that being ordered around by a small boy is a remarkable species leveller. Oh and by the way, I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but that piece of jewellery you received, the Heart of the Star?"
"Yes?"
"That was from all of us. That was your welcome to the family present."
"From… from all of you?"
"Yes, well, I picked it out – of your head – but it's from all the family, so please, wear it. It's yours."
"Thank you."
"No, thank you."
"What for?"
"Oh…" He smiled enigmatically. "Something else I picked up in Kael's head."
"What?" I was insanely curious.
He grinned and kissed me briefly on the forehead. "Spoilers!" He flitted off leaving me alone in the passageway.
"Damn you Edward Cullen!" I grinned.
"What's Edward done now?" Daniel's arms circled around me.
"Nothing, I just found out the origin of the jewellery." I smiled, turning around in his arms and planting my lips on his. "Are you sure you want to hang out by the pool. We could go back to bed?"
He shook his head. "No, I have unfinished super-soaker business with Ben." He said in all seriousness.
I laughed. "Is this family ever serious?"
"Yes, but we take everything as it comes and make the best of it. We work hard, fight hard and play hard. Right now, nobody's got it in for us and we're all together. This is the time to play hard. At some point over the next few days we'll have to sit through Ness making a tearful speech about how wonderful Edward is; but apart from that, we're here to kick back and relax."
"Vampires on vacation?"
"You got it! I know from Alice that tomorrow's going to be cloudy, so why don't we take the opportunity to go to San Gimignano?"
My eyes bugged. "Really?" Daniel nodded. "Together?" He nodded again and my heart exploded with joy like a firework. "I'd love it!" I threw my arm around his neck and kissed him.
There was an ominous click from behind me. In an instant I discovered I was behind Daniel and he was protecting me from the danger ahead. Ben was aiming the biggest water pistol I'd ever seen, straight at us.
"I thought you said that nobody's got it in for us?" I said, peeking out from behind Daniel.
"Hmm… Well I hadn't bargained on us being taken hostage by Bandit Ben." Daniel replied, seriously.
Ben took aim and I could see his finger start to squeeze the trigger, when all of a sudden, Alice swept him up. "Not in here!" She snapped.
"No Grandmaaaa!" He wailed as Alice carried him off to the pool.
The pair of us stood there laughing. I took hold of Daniel's hands.
"I'll meet you in five minutes," I said. "I need to get changed."
Daniel jogged off to the pool and I walked back to our room. I changed into my swimsuit and stood at the window, holding my hand over my tightly bound, broken rib. It was starting to throb again. I looked down on the Cullen family playing happily in or lounging by the pool. Apart from the odd blur of someone moving too fast, or the glitter of vampire skin, you wouldn't think there was anything different about this group of people; this family, my family. I grabbed my sunglasses and walked out to join them.